K9 Ventures

www.k9ventures.com

K9 Ventures is a technology-focused Pre-Seed fund based in Palo Alto, California that invests $250K-$750K (sweet spot ~$400K) in founding teams at the earliest stages, preferring to lead rounds and take board seats to work actively with founders.

Check Size

$250K - $750K

Stages

Pre Seed, Seed

Focus Areas

Enterprise Saas, Developer Tools, Data Infrastructure

Is K9 Ventures right for your startup?

Upload your pitch deck and get an AI-powered match score in minutes. See exactly how well you fit their investment criteria.

See If You're a Match

Investment Thesis

K9 Ventures believes that extraordinary things are possible when great teams come together around technology. They focus on being the first institutional capital into companies, betting on founders and their vision of the future rather than on traction. Their investment approach emphasizes deep relationships with portfolio companies, providing capital alongside hands-on support, mentorship, and board participation. They view money as a commodity in venture capital—the real currencies that matter are reputation and time.

What Sets Them Apart

Concentrated portfolio approach: only 4-6 investments per year to provide sufficient attention to each company
Extremely early stage focus: prefers companies that have raised NO outside capital at all, or only friends & family money
Uses priced equity rounds only (Series Seed documents), explicitly does NOT do convertible notes or SAFEs
Hands-on active involvement: founder can call K9 first for questions, victories, or crises; board seat through Series A with scale-back at Series B+
Founder-centric: strong preference for technical founders capable of leading the business with high passion, integrity, and ability to learn
Contrarian philosophy: explicitly states 'most VCs are sheep. We're not'—willing to make own decisions and go against the crowd
Geographic focus: typically only invests in San Francisco Bay Area founding teams due to belief in Silicon Valley's unique ecosystem value
Follow-on capital: reserves additional capital for participating in Seed, Series A, and Series B rounds for portfolio companies